Pepe Oriola keeps in touch with title rivals with sixth in Bahrain
Crat-Bamboo’s Pepe Oriola came sixth in today’s race in Bahrain. The Spaniard had started from eleventh after a difficult qualifying session, when a tyre pressure issue made it difficult for him to extract maximum performance out of his SEAT León TCR.
“This is one of my favourite tracks”, said the Spaniard. “The tyre pressure and the 10-kg ballast did not allow me to obtain the result I had hoped for in Qualifying.”
A lightning start allowed Oriola to make up ground in the early stages of the race. A pass late in the race on team-mate James Nash meant the Spaniard finished in sixth:” I knew it would have been a difficult race, starting from so far back, so I took a risk at the start and I was able to overtake several cars. Sixth is a good result after the way the day had started.”
Oriola hopes to do more of the same tomorrow, as he bids to stay in touch with his title rivals: “I will try to repeat the feat tomorrow, as I’m trying to bag points to keep myself high in the championship standings.”
Roberto Colciago now leads the championship on 40 points in his Honda Civic TCR, with Volkswagen’s Jean-Karl Vernay tied in second. Pepe Oriola is third in the standings, equal on points with former championship leader Davit Kajaia.
